Always RTFM

Over at TDP last week, I was talking about a collision of gentle hints that it might be a good time for me to get my room in order. TL;DR version: after having my room painted, I didn’t want to put stuff back in it. I liked it nearly empty. Never one to turn down a hint on how to productively procrastinate instead of writing, I therefore spent a good part of my weekend working on my room.

Some things, for me, are easy. Other things, not so much. Clothes and shoes and purses? If I have any extras lying around, they’ll be out the door fairly quickly. Books? Not so much.

I mean, what does “extra” even mean when applied to books?

In Marie Kondo’s method, KonMari, you take everything in a category and put it in one place, and you hold each and every item and decide if it sparks joy.

Friends, I pulled all the books from my big 12-cube bookcase and stacked them all on my bed and it was completely covered. And then I saw that I’d missed the little bookcase that was still in the hallway, and I decided I’d leave all those until later.

I want to emphasize that when I started I hadn’t read Marie Kondo’s book. I’d just watched all the Netflix shows, and it’s not as simple as it looks.

Diving into the books, for instance…I quickly came across tough choices. The nostalgia reads–thirty years ago, I was reading Rifles for Watie about every year for something like five years, then one day a couple years ago I wanted to read it again and I went and found it. Does it spark joy? Well, I loved that book so much when I was younger. And I might want to read it again! (Perhaps, though, it should be a hint that though I bought it, I haven’t read it since reacquiring it?)

The “I really expected to love this, will I like it better if I read it again?” books. The borrowed “oh geez I still have this? Quick, read it and give it back” books (but I can’t just give them back unread! Especially after so long!) The “I bought this as an experiment and I really should try it” reads, the “this series is finally over so i can read the whole thing” books (coughwheel of time, an entire cubicle to itselfcough) the “this was a really good book by a damned good author so I should read it again” (To the Hilt, Dick Francis. Seriously. So good.) books.

It was hard.

I was watching–well, had on–YouTube videos of other people attempting to “Tidy Up” their living spaces. I realized as I was struggling that people had a lot of different ideas on what was supposed to be happening. Only one person had read the book (and she was still doing stuff like passing her give-aways to her sister, which Marie Kondo expressly forbids in her book!)

The thing with KonMari that a lot of people didn’t seem to get, is what it means to keep only what sparks joy. People would be crying over things they didn’t want to give up, which to me meant maybe that thing was in the wrong category? Or it just shouldn’t be given up?

Here’s how it’s supposed to go:

1. clothes
2. books
3. paper
4. komono (miscellaneous stuff–kitchen stuff, electronics, bathroom stuff, et cetera.)
5. sentimental items

The idea is that you get better at deciding what brings you joy as you go. We all know how it goes with clothes–with some items, you acquire it, you hang it up, you don’t wear it, you don’t wear it, you don’t wear it–then you pile every single article of clothing you own on your bed with the plan to tidy up your life, and you know you have to get rid of things, and you pick up that thing you never wore and you’re off. One easy choice and you’ve begun.

You hone that decision-making through the clothes, and then you move on to the books. Only I don’t have that much in the way of clothes (I’m ruthless with them, seriously–to the point I’ll end up buying something again because I tossed it though I kind of needed it. I may only wear a winter coat three times a year, but those three times I kind of NEED THAT COAT.) so I didn’t get that practice.

Anyway, you’re supposed to work through the list until you get to sentimental items, and if you (the YouTube person) are on your knees by your bed crying at the idea of giving up a shirt, I would think just move that shirt to the “sentimental items” category and get on with the clothes.*

This is a thing that bugs me, when people half-ass a thing they don’t know much about, and then they’re not happy with the results. Like when you see a recipe on a site where someone subbed in six things, boiled instead of sauted, et cetera, and then rates the recipe low because it didn’t taste very good.

Anyway. My own experience. Ahem.

Eventually I figured out that if I didn’t get through my books, I would not have a bed to sleep on. But by then I’d also realized that I didn’t have as good a grasp on the method as I wanted, so I went on Amazon and bought myself one more book, and then I started shoving books back onto my (moved and dusted) bookcase.

I did find about fifteen books that went away. Rifles for Watie is going to my school to live in the library we’re building, along with The Good Master and a few other cherished memories. Some art books went to a young artist friend. The rest went back on the bookcase–in no order. I know I won’t be able to tolerate that for long, so I’ll be forced to have another go soon. In the meantime I’m reading Tidying Up.

When I’m ready, I’ll tackle my room again. And then I’ll move on to the rest of my house, and I’m very excited about that!

Yeah, part of the excitement may be that it won’t be just MY stuff on the chopping block…

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*Says I, who as of this writing has only read half of Tidying Up.